New “action plan” to combat the rat population in the city

Strategies include bringing together several departments of the city government to combat rat infestations; depriving rats of their food sources, particularly by ensuring that residents know how to properly dispose of their garbage; targeting certain neighborhoods with the highest rat densities; and using technology to more accurately detect and eliminate their hiding places and escape routes.

“Boston is proud that our city is distinguished by exceptional essential city services such as safe and clean streets, beautiful public spaces, and a responsive and accessible city government,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “We are working to make Boston a home for everyone. Except rats. Our rodent action plan, based on this data-driven report, will guide our approach to our neighborhoods.”

The city’s plan is based on recommendations from consultant Bobby Corrigan, who holds a doctorate in urban rodentology from Purdue University and has been researching and working in pest control for nearly 30 years. He is considered one of the country’s leading experts in rodent control, has worked for the City of New York on rat control, and owns a company called RMC Pest Management Consulting, through which he provides training, research and programs on rodent or pest control. Boston paid Corrigan $19,750 for his help in developing the action plan.

Corrigan stressed that prevention is more important than reaction, and in particular he stressed the need to involve residents and business owners and educate them on how to help, especially when it comes to dealing with garbage.

“We have to starve them, we can’t feed them,” said Dion Irish, the city’s operations director.

“Rodent containment, or lethal control as we call it, is the least effective method of dealing with rats,” said John Ulrich, deputy commissioner of Boston’s Department of Environmental Services, which is also responsible for the city’s rodent control. “Sanitation is the best solution, and that’s why we need to encourage the population to be careful about how we dispose of their garbage.”

Corrigan’s report provided an analysis of the existing rat presence and population in the city and recommended specific strategies to reduce rat activity in various locations such as parks, sewers, public housing complexes and construction sites. He identified several neighborhoods that the city should prioritize in its efforts.

He also listed alternative rat poisons that pose no danger to other wildlife. Officials said one of the city’s main and most effective methods of killing rats in parks and on public property is pumping carbon monoxide into rat burrows. This does not harm plants or leave poison for other animals, and is also considered more humane than other methods.

Corrigan recommended that Boston use the data to identify rat “hotspots,” using technology such as rodent sensors and camera equipment to track rat activity in sewers and other underground systems.

The priority, Corrigan wrote, should be to establish a task force comprised of all departments involved in rat control in the city – including the city’s inspection and environmental services departments, the Department of Public Works, the Boston Health Commission, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Water and Sewer Commission, the Department of Public Services, the Boston Housing Authority and more.

Ulrich will chair the group, oversee collaboration and strategy development between departments, and organize regular meetings.

The city currently has 14 licensed inspectors handling 311 complaints, but Ulrich stressed that there are dozens of employees in other city departments who also handle rodent problems, and the task force will help formalize and strengthen that collaboration.

However, Corrigan also recommended that the city reconsider the idea of ​​creating a “rat czar” and weigh the pros and cons.

Councilman Ed Flynn, who has pushed for the creation of a separate pest control agency, criticized the city’s plan for not creating a new “rat czar” position and disagreed with the health commission’s finding that the city’s current pest problem does not pose a major public health threat. But Irish, the city’s chief of operations, argued the title was redundant.

“It’s clear that we don’t necessarily need one person to do this role, but we need coordination between all the agencies involved and that has to be a priority for the mayor’s office and we’re already checking those boxes,” Irish said. “Our focus is to work smarter, to work together, and I think we have the makers of an effective program that will put an end to rats in the city of Boston.

The city is already implementing some new measures, including new trash cans in Boston Common, a new container pilot project at a Boston Housing Authority complex in Charlestown and a trash can pilot project in the North End through the Department of Buildings, Irish said.

The report did not address less conventional methods of controlling the rat population, such as rat birth control, which the city council had recently considered.

City councilor Enrique Pepén has proposed phasing out the use of rat poison in the city and instead introducing rat birth control to avoid the harm that rodenticides can cause to other wildlife, including domestic animals.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said her staff has been working on a pilot program testing the method in Jamaica Plain for over a year. Although rat sightings have dropped 50 to 60 percent in the past eight months that the program has been being tested, she said it’s too soon for a citywide rat birth control initiative.

“Hopefully the use of rodenticides will be stopped soon,” Louijeune said, but “the pellets (for contraception) are not yet produced commercially and there is not yet enough evidence that this works successfully and can be used on a large scale.”

Irish did not rule out this option for the future.

“Everything is on the table,” he said.

You can reach Niki Griswold at [email protected]. Follow her @nikigriswold.